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There are plenty of reasons to smile at The A-Team, Joe Carnahan’s pump-you-up screen adaptation of the 1980s TV action series. But the best has to be Liam Neeson’s angry put-down of a thuggish rival.

“He’s a cartoon character!” sneers Neeson’s Col. Hannibal Smith.

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Pot, meet kettle.

Having one two-dimensional figure insult another for lack of realism is like G.I. Joe calling Buzz Lightyear plastic.

Acting like a cartoon is the whole point of The A-Team and also the main appeal of this dumb summer fun, which is actually smarter than it needs to be. In this case, gratefully, “dumb” isn’t a synonym for “idiotic.”

Carnahan stylistically rides the line between the near-parody of his Vegas mash-up Smokin’ Aces and the bleak realism of his police drama Narc. In so doing, he follows Smith’s dictum about always having a plan.

He remains true to A-Team lore: a quartet of ex-military aces, benevolent brutes all, band together to right wrongs and settle scores anywhere in the world, shedding only the blood permitted by the U.S. PG-13 rating. But the film adds a few new touches — a shift to the Middle East from Vietnam, an all-too-believable army-vs.-CIA subplot and a truly menacing villain — that keep things on the boil.

Neeson takes last year’s Taken to its logical next level by marching into George Peppard’s old role of Smith, a cigar-chomping square jaw with fatherly mien and boyish enthusiasm. Smith says “plan” so often, you could make a drinking game out of it once the film hits DVD.

Bradley Cooper nimbly assumes the pose and pecs of Dirk Benedict’s Templeton “Faceman” Peck, a pretty-boy powerhouse whose multilingual verbal skills are as smooth in the bedroom as they are in the field.

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Mixed martial arts champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has the difficult task of assuming the iconic “pity the fool” image of Mr. T from the TV series, the most cartoonish A-Teamer of all. But Jackson’s B.A. Baracus makes for an agreeable facsimile, even if it is tough to figure out what he’s saying at times. Usually it’s some variation of “that’s B.S.!” because he leaves “pity” and “fool” to the back of his hands.

Which leaves surprise pick Sharlto Copley, the civil service dweeb from District 9. He nuts up nicely as the replacement for Dwight Schultz’s “Howling Mad” Murdock, a psycho ward inmate who also makes for one hell of a helicopter pilot.

You don’t expect much of a plot in a movie like this — recent copycat The Losers certainly didn’t trouble itself with one. But Carnahan and his vast crew of co-writers (as many as 11 in all, according to Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke) miraculously managed to put together something resembling a decent yarn.

They go old school with a story about bad guys, conveniently located in Baghdad, who just want to use money — not bombs or bugs — to cause social unrest. They’ve stolen U.S. Mint engraving plates so they can print billions worth of $100 bills to flood the American economy (too bad the government already beat them to that scam).

The A-Teamers try to do right but instead get accused of doing wrong. The four are sent to separate maximum security prisons that no man can break out of (insert hysterical laughter here).

Even as the movie devolves into your standard shootout, where the laws of physics and gravity are violated more than manmade ones, it remains loyal to its characters, including three well-cast troublemakers.

A game Jessica Biel is Army Capt. Sosa, a by-the-book babe who has a history with Face (he’s still smiling, she isn’t) and no patience for the A-Team’s shenanigans. She can strut while wearing high heels.

Patrick Wilson is CIA Agent Lynch, a petulant technocrat who may actually be smarter than he seems. Or maybe not.

Brian Bloom is Pike, leader of a black ops group Smith derisively calls not just cartoons, but also “assassins in Polo shirts.”

Pike gives the picture a genuine sense of menace, something it would otherwise be lacking in a story that uses airbags, toy dolls and a Steely Dan tune amongst its many improvised weapons of mass distraction.

The A-Team even manages to include a hilarious send-up of 3-D mania (the movie is 2-D only, which is all it needs) plus a shout out to TV’s Mad Men that should have fans of that series nodding in admiration.

“Overkill is underrated,” Smith says. And once again, he’s hammered the square peg straight into the round hole.

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